Captain's Corner: Winter fishing arriving, a little late

I suppose it was inevitable we would eventually have cold fronts passing through and dropping water temperature. Until now anyway it hasn't dumped the Fahrenheit too low too fast to end our fall run of kingfishing. Fast moving fronts allow winds to quickly return to a normal easterly pattern. Two or three days of the easterly flow is all it takes to cleanse the near shore gulf waters and bunch the bait back up along the beach. We caught kingfish and mackerel right up to the beginning of this week's blow and I'm anticipating an extended season due to what appears to be a late arriving winter. It's been a tradition of ours to sneak out fishing Thanksgiving morning and get back before the turkey's done and the football games start. My fondest memories include the Clearwater hard bottom, the Blinds Pass drop and the "parking lot" about 5 miles off St. Pete Beach. As it gets colder, each year about this time, swarms of silver trout invade the gulf beaches. They can be caught two at a time on tandem rigged jigs. It's an opportunity to teach kids how to cast and learn to make a fake bait appear real. We've often done best on the hard bottom off Redington and Madeira beaches just outside the swim buoys.

The outgoing tides of last weekendís new moon washed thousands of small swimmer crabs, known locally as "pass crabs," out of the estuaries and into the gulf. This suddenly abundant food source offshore works as a natural chum line and draws big permi...

With the full moon this next week tarpon are moving down the beaches and making their way out of the bay and moving out to the bridges and the passes to feed before some of them leave to go out and spawn on the full moon. Early in the morning along t...

Windy conditions this week have actually slightly improved fishing. The waters of Saint Joseph sound had become so clear that it made finding fish easy, but getting bites very difficult. Snook have been gathering in great numbers all along the beache...

Red grouper fishing continues to be steady in depths of 100-120 feet. Large bait stacks are holding a fish or two, but larger concentrations are on very small rolls and potholes in those depths. Zooming in on the bottom 10-15 feet of the water column...

Cobia is the topic this week. Capt. Tom Markham, aboard the Simply Hooked, was beginning his daily bait routine. It turned out that one of the markers located near Clearwater Pass, surprisingly, had a giant fish waiting for him. The captain slid up t...

This week shouldnít be a total wash out. While there is a chance of rain every day, it should only be sporadic. Hopefully it wonít dirty up the water too much. If you are a tarpon fisherman and look forward to their arrival like I do, then you are in...

Itís the best time of year for fishing in the area. Tarpon can be targeted off of any of the bridges. The Gandy, Howard Frankland and Skyway are my top choices. While awaiting a tarpon strike, I kill time by dropping smaller baits for Spanish mackere...

Most fly fishers would prefer minimum wind and cloudless skies to increase chances for a banner day. This has been a problem lately. The wind makes casting more difficult, unless very experienced, and clouds interfere with sight casting opportunities...

Schools of baitfish have arrived and taken up residence in all depths. Birds are diving on them close to the beach, all the way out to the midwater artificial reefs. Farther offshore, bait schools might not be visible on the surface but can be detect...

Tarpon season is here, and the fish are showing up in numbers along the beaches. While there have been tarpon in the bays and backwaters for awhile, there were very few schools cruising the coast until a few days ago. Then, seemingly overnight, big p...

Terry Tomalin, the Tampa Bay Times' larger-than-life outdoors editor, traveled Florida and the world to take readers on extraordinary adventures. He died on May 19 after suffering a heart attack. He was 55.

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